Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" hits
the ground running. This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and
exhilarating at the same time, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to
riches on the strength of his lively intelligence. The film's universal appeal
will present the real India to millions of moviegoers for the first time.

[...]

The film uses dazzling
cinematography, breathless editing, driving music and
headlong momentum to explode with narrative force,
stirring in a romance at the same time. For Danny Boyle,
it is a personal triumph. He combines the suspense of a
game show with the vision and energy of "City of God"
and never stops sprinting.

When I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I
was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie
is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the
theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience
Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land
a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one
of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its
immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher
summit.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The
Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio

English / Hindi (Dolby Digital 5.1) , DUB French 2.0

Subtitles

English,
French, Spanish, None

Features

Release Information:Studio: Fox

Aspect Ratio:Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1

Edition Details:

• Trailer
Previews

DVD Release Date: March 31st, 2009Keep Case
Chapters: 28

Comments:

NOTE: From
Amazon: DVD Alert: We are aware that special features were missing from
a number of Slumdog Millionaire DVDs. Fox has set up a hotline telephone
number (1-888-223-4FOX) for those consumers who may have purchased a
version that does not contain special features. Upon calling the
hotline, these consumers will be able to have their disc replaced for
one containing special features. Fox regrets any inconvenience this has
caused.

****

NOTE:
I don't believe this is a studio-supplied screener
- yet despite the listing on the back of the box - this has NO viable
extras (Menus do not support the supplements listed on the package as
well - i.e. commentary, making of..., deleted scenes etc.) So there is
an error somewhere. We will review this disc anticipating the mistake is
on the box - NOT the DVD authoring. If it proves otherwise - we
will alter our coverage. It is also possible that my copy, alone, is
faulty - but due to the accuracy of the menus (specifically the Special
Features Menu) I find this remote. Could it be the rental version?
Lastly - it could be the rare 'Canadian' edition rearing its head -
again unlikely IMO. Stay tuned.

As far as I can tell -
this is the only SD-DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire coming out
in region 1. It is bare-bones (see note above) but very reasonably priced especially when
you consider the film's accolades which include the Oscar for Best
Picture. I see the Blu-ray
HERE
is stacked with a Director commentary, Making of..., Deleted Scenes,
a second disc of a Digital copy and more. The image quality on this DVD isn't
particularly remarkable and shows all the weaknesses of the inferior
format. Colors on the Blu-ray
(eventually compared if we can ever crack it)
are brighter, more depth and detail is a healthy notch up - but this DVD represents
the film about as well as this progressive, anamorphic, dual-layered SD
format can with a moderate bitrate and the feature taking up just under 6 Gig
of space.

The audio
is a reasonably clean 5.1 track with a fair amount of separation in the
mix with
the noisy locales of India producing some external audibles from the rear
speakers. The Blu-ray goes a step further with a more dynamic DTS-HD
having noticeably more depth. Hindi dialogue is shown in a burned-in subtitle over a
transparent green rectangular taping and English, French and Spanish
subs are removable in a white font (see samples below).

There are only 4 trailers as extras (and not one
included for Slumdog Millionaire!) timing out at a little over 4
minutes. Not offering a two-disc DVD package containing most of the same
supplements as the hi-def edition is an interesting choice by Fox.

As for this, the
film is so highly lauded and the limited DVD package - but competent
transfer - that it makes it hard not to glowingly recommend. The Blu-ray
HEREis less than $10 more and seems like a far better 'deal' in
my opinion with better image, audio and extensive extras.